Motorsport Racing Tour De Force: The Spa Classic

(Circuit De Spa)

Every sport has its historic arenas where great legends, spectacle and moments that defined the sports were born.  Motorsport racing has many hallowed grounds including the most familiar Monaco Grand Prix track and Indy 500 Raceway. But if you speak the inside-baseball language of the racing crowd, you’re in the know about the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps raceway as among the foremost tracks of those sacred territories.

The scenic raceway rests in the midst of the lush – and historic in its own rite – Ardennes forest in Belgium, its first Grand Prix was held nearly 100 years ago in 1925. But don’t be fooled: the wooded softly rolling hills and babbling brooks conceal a monster track.

Since its inception the Spa has been known as one of the world’s toughest tracks, featuring the dreaded Masta Kink, which befuddled many of motor sport’s best and brightest. The track is still very much on the F1 schedule, also serving as the backdrop for this weekend’s annual Spa Classic Races.

The Spa Classic is known throughout Europe and the world as a premiere throwback series. The operative word here is Classic, because during the past 10 years the spectacle (albeit boutique) has featured seven different events, including the Sixties Endurance and Group C races, all boasting feature the coolest, most beautiful race cars in motorsports, steeped in recalling the sport’s rich history while establishing its place in the future.

The aptly named Sixties Endurance race has featured some of the greatest endurance cars the world has ever known as the stunning and feisty Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra, hailing from the Ford GT lineage. And of course who can forget about the reigniting of old rivalries like that of the old V12 Ferraris and early Porsche 911s.

This year’s Group C race should be very interesting as well. Recreating what is arguably the most iconic period in Le Mans history, the years between 1992 and 2002, the race features some of the finest endurance wheels known to humanity.

This weekend will see open-wheel and Le Mans legend Tim Macrow drive the Tiga Sports car around the Francorchaps tarmac, and that is something to which we are very much looking forward.

These are but two of the offerings however, there is also the Trofeo Nastro Rosso, dedicated to the most beautiful cars in the Universe EVER – namely Italian racers from the mid-20^th century.

To see what else is on tap, be sure to reserve the couch and TV in the man cave this weekend. As your wife would say: “How else do you think he takes a nap?”

Nothing like the roar of the engine and a British accent to put a car enthusiast to sleep. Now that’s a Golden Hour.​